Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill is a political panelist regularly on CBC Radio and TV in BC and with other media.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Bill Tieleman responds to Alex G. Tsakumis' allegations

2 UPDATES AT END OF THIS ORIGINAL ARTICLEI take no pleasure in responding to allegations posted on the blog of Alex G. Tsakumis today - no pleasure because Alex and I were once friends, until his behaviour ended that friendship suddenly several years ago. I have no intention to go into the details.In his post dated October 17, 2012 and titled "The Conspiracy Theorists in BC Know the BC NDP Numbers are Somewhat Soft: A Fear on the Left that the Right Will Unite" Alex makes a number of negative comments and casts several aspersions regarding my blog post on the BC Conservative Party's troubles and a previous column on that party's AGM. Some posters on his blog do the same, along with his additional commentary.I will not engage in a lengthy debate on the merits of the BC Conservative Party's dissidents, what role the BC Liberal Party or its members have played in these events or my motivation for discussing these issues. That I am a supporter of the BC NDP is hardly news and has always been well known. In the blog item, I clearly indicated some would reject what I wrote because of that but they should debate the information presented.Alex also writes that: "NOT ONCE, did Tieleman pay tribute to John vanDongen–who is, naturally, everyone’s hero."Completely wrong. I appreciate the work that Abbotsford-South MLA John van Dongen has done on the Basi-Virk/BC Rail case as an intervenor in Auditor General John Doyle's application for legal fee documents - and I have lauded him in my column and blog for that on September 18, even starting with a strong quote from van Dongen. I attended at least part of every day of the BC Supreme Court hearing and spoke with van Dongen about it every day.Later, after van Dongen quit the BC Conservatives and I was told he had been talking to BC Liberal MLAs Donna Barnett and Moira Stilwell, I called him up and interviewed him about it, as is only right, and reported his response.I have not "gone quiet" on Basi-Virk - I've covered the case since day one on December 28, 2003, broken multiple stories, published a 10,000 word A-Z on Basi-Virk and will continue to report on it as I see fit and am able. But I won't take criticism like that from someone who not once attended a session of the Basi-Virk pre-trial hearings or the trial over all those years. Lastly, I do not disclose who my clients are any more than Alex discloses his clients or his sources of income or anyone else in the business world does. Nor do I need to "explain myself" to Alex G. Tsakumis. Nor will I be posting anything on his blog.

UPDATE 7 p.m. - Alex G. Tsakumis tells me in an email that he attended seven pre-trial hearing days and one day of the trial - I accept his information and am happy to correct the record. UPDATE Thursday 7 p.m. - Alex G. Tsakumis has posted another article criticizing me. I will refrain from much further commentary on it except to respond to this claim:Tsakumis writes: "When I was still his colleague in 2009, three times in six months, while my column’s popularity at 24 Hours had easily eclipsed his, he took shots at me in his Tuesday column space. I went to my then editor and asked if we were a team or not. I don’t mind taking criticism, but for a colleague AND FRIEND to despicably group me together with climate change skeptics that allegedly were taking bribes from major oil companies, was beyond the pale. If it was anyone else alluding to that, I’d have immediately sued.

When he did it the last time, over my salient and factual positions against the lies told by his personal friend James Hoggan–a global warming doomsterist and climate change catastrophe propagandist, Tieleman attacked one last time.

That was it, I was on my way out the door–I immediately resigned as columnist–even though, the publisher begged me to find a way of staying. I wouldn’t without a published apology to me and my throng of readers. I wrote Tieleman three stinging, nasty emails–expletive laden and raw, telling him what a cheap shot artist I thought he was. (My then editor, I found out later was dating a PR consultant friend of Tieleman’s and Hoggan’s–thats why the cheap shot in Tieleman’s column was permitted). Your name, in this business, is everything and I wasn’t about to let someone, anyone, sully mine."You can read the column I wrote here and decide for yourself but the only mention of Tsakumkis was as follows:

"James Hoggan’s new book Climate Cover-Up [Greystone Books] is a must-read for anyone concerned about the biggest, most pervasive effort ever at manipulating the media by some of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations.

Why, I’d even recommend it highly to my 24 hours colleague Alex Tsakumis, who has ripped Hoggan and CKNW AM 980radio host Bill Good for two weeks straight about the issue for allegedly not providing “balance” on climate change.

[Disclosure – Hoggan and Good are friends of mine and I appear on Bill’s show every Monday – but Alex is a friend too.]"

.Tsakumis quit 24 hours newspaper before he had read my column and before it was published. He did not contact me to ask what I had written in the column that evening. I did not and do not have a "PR consultant friend" who was dating the editor. I do not recall taking "shots" at Tsakumis previously - certainly at that point he and I were still friends and he had not raised concerns with what I had written.Again, I regret this situation but I will leave it to my readers to judge for themselves what happened..

53 comments:

I make a point of reading all the non-MSM political material I can find, but I no longer read the blog authored by what the commenter above referred to as a worthless wanker. That comment is a disservice to wankers everywhere. The blogger referred to is much less than that.

The column you wrote is spot on. Anyone paying attention to BC politics can see that the right-wing money is desperately urging, cajoling and buying a united right. Buying in the sense of threatening to withhold funding. Van Dongen, for all his good work on BC Rail, has set his sail to catch whatever wind will lead to his re-election. His affiliation with the aforementioned troll diminishes any of the good work Van Dongen did, or may do.

Carol James was stabbed in the back by the MSM before the BC NDP decided to choose a new leader. Carol James took a group of journalists (I use the term loosely) up in an airplane to look at the ecological damage the Independent Power Producers are doing to the environment on the mountains here in BC. It was windy so the reporters wound not look out the windows and see the damage that is being done. They slagged Carol James for taking them on such a rough plane ride and ignored the real issue, the damage the IPP's were doing to the environment as well as the high cost the energy is costing BC Hydro and its rate payers. It was not the NDP that stabbed her in the back, it was the MSM that ignored the issues that she brought forward.

Carole James had two cracks at an election win..Who gets three cracks?

Yes the media hated Carole James until she was deposed, then they(The Media) found the Carole love..

It`s a non-issue, Carole James is running in her riding, she will be a cabinet minister if the NDP win the election..

There is a difference, Carole James and the NDP WANT to make a social difference, a province where children, workers and family health come first, all families..

Education, health and a little social justice, do you realize that the HST by the time it`s gone will have cost BC consumers $4 billion dollars, $4 billion dollars to the corporate bottom line,....

Just imagine, I`m against the HST in the form it took, all that consumer tax going to big corporations, imagine if that $4 billion dollars went for the people, special ed, disabled, seniors care, but it didn`t, it went to $billion dollar corporations, nothing dropped in price and no one was hired..

I had to block Alex from my facebook account because we got into a debate and when one of his friends posted Geoghegan 1 Tsakumis 0 he went straight into cyber psychosis. I lost all respect for him after that.

I just hate this when some of my favorite bloggers are having a differance of opinion. At some level it is entertainig on another level, not so much. I see most people as having common goals, decent education, clean hospitals, no child poverty, etc. We may differ on how to get there but we have similar goals. I think the task at hand is dealing with the issues, not with each other.

You did just fine complementing the lieberals on the wine thing. It was about time the move was made. for the odd time they do something right it doesn't hurt any one or change their political affiliations to complement the other side.

How some one makes their money is no ones business. Most people have to make a living, & as I used to say when I worked, I do if for the most money possible unless it offends my personal principals or puts me in jail.

As to pictures, gee, there was a time in Canada when oppositing politicians did actually socialize outside of their work places. I don't think in this case pictures mean all that much.

I do enjoy your blogg, read it regularly. The catcha doesn't always work so that restricts my commenting but that maybe just as well.

Some folks manage to read blogs from all areas of political comment. My gosh I read stuff by Conrad Black now and again. Read the others sides stuff to see what they are thinking about. No different with some of us reading Alex T. The line up here has shifted from the bloggers comments on Alex T. to who loved Carol James the most, James was my MLA and I was quite happy to see the riding shift so I wouldn't have to vote for or against her.10 rodergai

Thank you Bill. Funny the AGT doesn't see his own "my way or the highway" act as bullying. Disagree with His Exulted Highness? Prepare for a verbal brow-beating or a tale of his boxing abilities. Sad little egotist. But there is hope - you have to delude yourself into thinking Harper is the second coming of Jesus and all will be good.

I disagree, because when one considers how the Campbell/Clark Cabal and their organized criminal organization rob the people of B.C., it should be everyone's business, especially law enforcement. However in our banana republic of a province the purpose of the police is to provide cover for the real capos of organized crime, like Campbell and his cohorts.

No one needs to point out the sheer assholery of the blogger mentioned in the title of this post - he does a perfectly adequate job of illustrating it through his rude, insulting posts and sycophantic and imaginary commenters! I enjoy reading his rants, but realize it is impossible to engage him in rational discussion, his comment thread is for fawning and/or imaginary folks only!

He is interesting to read for an alternate view of history, though his is not as well done as Stephen King's recent time travel/history manipulation novel 11/22/63 - of course Mr. King states clearly out front that his work is fiction, and doesn't pretend otherwise.

But anyone who reads the King of Bloggers even sporadically must realize if he ain't dissing somebody, anyone from Vision, Grant, Laila, the dear late BC Mary, Robin, myself or virtually anyone to the left of Benny who made the trains run on time, he ain't posting. I take that back, because every now and then he dips into the super maudlin, for contrast I presume!

Aren't some folks, including the "greasy weasel," conflating the BC liaR Party with the BCMA?

Now doctors, tending to be richer than the average manager at MacDonalds, may tend to the political right, after all, conservatism in these folks minds is all about justifying greed as a virtue.......but that still doesn't make the Medical Association an actual part of the BC Liberal Party.

Doctor Day, the rabid cheerleader for privatization of healthcare and the BC Libs are obviously on the same page, but many in the medical professions are actually there because they are interested in "helping" people, believe it or not. The doctors in my little town have been virtually at war with the Inferior Health Authority and their masters in Victoria for over a decade now, and thanks to them I still don't have to travel two or more hours for anything more than an aspirin!They love and are part of our community!

when I wrote, its no ones business how someone makes their money, I was actually referring to AGT's comments regarding B.T. having a contract with the BCMA.

Of course I don't condon illegal activities or those that impinge on other peoples' rights. As I said I worked for the most money possible as long as it didn't offend my personal prinipals or put me in jail.

what most people choose to do for a living is quite different from what has gone on in B.C. regarding our railroad, child poverty, stupid meters, tolls, etc. Just for the record I don't adhere to the, I was just following orders, routine either.

I had no idea this Jackie Gleason wannabe even existed 'till about a year ago, and decided to challenge him. With 3 comments, I was blocked.The man is thin skinned and is in the same realm as Mitt (flip flop) Romney. Hardly worth a second look.I have long since forgotten this clown.

He ranted about me and my allegedly insane conspiracy theories about water exports - theories that are largely supported by documentation, third party witnesses, affidavit evidence and reasoned inferences from the facts.

Mr. Tsakumis even threatened to launch a lawsuit against me if I ever posted a comment on his pathetic little blog again. I suppose he is afraid of freedom of speech when it doesn't agree with him which is a trait one does not usually expect to encounter in a professional journalist.

I am not certain why he is so opposed the ideas expressed at the Water War Crimes web site. http://www.waterwarcrimes.com

His fear of those ideas may have something to do with the fact that he once worked for Elwood Veitch and Bill Vander Zalm who were involved in some of the questionable Social Credit shenanigans related to water exports.

His almost pathological hatred of Christy Clark may also be based in his background with those two political scoundrels from a very strange part of BC history that is not fully explained.

You mentioned Carole James got two cracks at an election win. You asked who gets three cracks?

There was Dave Barrett (after his short lived term as Premier). He went on to try again in 1975, 1979 and 1983, and lost each time.

The media did not do Carole James in, Jenny Kwan and a few others did within the NDP.

What the NDP wants and what they will be able to accomplish are two different things may end up being different.

Don't expect the NDP to be able to magically erase all instances of poverty, provide everything for families based on NDP goals.

It simply isn't going to happen.

There was poverty and the DTES was a mess when the NDP was in power, and there will be poverty and the DTES will still be a mess when the NDP assumes power after next year's election.

and "working people"? Give it a rest. Anyone who works for a paycheque is a working person, be it the small store owner, the accountant, the construction worker, the sales person, the bank manager, the engineer, bus driver, even the non union medical lab technician who handles stool samples.

Well, I think AGT just lost about three thousand hits (and a few comments)due to his ego. I really enjoyed hia 'contributions' to the Basi/Virk/BCRail fiasco, but that seems to have waned lately.So, guess I'll have to go elsewhere for my info. Since he's branded me as a 'lefty', I guess it might as well be here.Yea, about those so caled 'hits', I guess about half of them are responding to his Challenger/ challenged friends. So long Alex.

lI posted on the frogs blog,told him that holding my breath for the rest of the bc rail post was not an option he kept saying it's with my lawyers and kept promising week after week any information that opertunist gave us was widely available and given to us years ahead of that fool,I've said it before and here I'll say it again that guy is a trojan horse.

Sad to see all this Bill. Although Tsakumis is a known quantity, people shouldn't be shocked to learn that he's rather mercurial. And it's hard to take his argument very seriously as there's a glaring contradiction in alleging that you're a NDP partisan for what you said in that post, and at the same time you're also somehow secretly a Liberal partisan because of BCMA. These claims are mutually exclusive. And your speculations about the Patton photo are no different than what folks like Mike Smyth have raised which means Tsakumis' whole narrative about this being some sort of convoluted and tendentious Dipper agenda therefore completely collapses.

Frankly, given the actual substance of Tsakumis' attack I think this is more about him having had been annoyed with you on a couple issues for some time, like your role in the James wars, and that has finally manifested itself in his post. That said, if Tsakumis was an intrepid journalist a few days ago on files like BC Rail then it would be still be the case today even if he happened to vociferously lambast somebody (and was in the wrong about it).

Since when is the BCMA a Liberal Association? I doubt that Alex T. getting dumped by 24 hours was a decision made by Bill Tielman, so it looks like he is striking at someone he used to work with.

Working people have to eat and get work where they can as long as they feel the outfit looking for a communications guy is not a BC Liberal plant. I doubt as well that Bill is suddenly a BC LIberal supporter.

Wiht the NDP there is not going to be a socially just, environmentally sound, and economically sustainable province, 100% not even half that.

You're dreaming an environmentalist's together with an anti-poverty advocate's dream where everyone is making at least $18.00 an hour, the sky is as clear and sharp as it was 250,000 years ago, and the finances are as balanced as a scientist's scale.

Until AGT pulls his head out of, let's call it, Harperfantasyland, he has boom all credibility.No objectivity, just quiet cheerleading. Sad, because he can be a good read, but he's an epic failure and shows the same crap he whines about.

So Bill are you going to be sending Alex flowers for giving you all this nonstop publicity and attention on his blog, with its vast readership and the hits spilled over to here? And wow, according to Alex you're the hidden hand behind every major political event that's ever happened in British Columbia. That's very flattering of him to say--and just in time too: tickets are still available for the Tyee's Masterclass Series with Bill Tieleman, buy now while supplies last!

Tsakumis knows a fair bit about BC politics and does some good stuff. But this doesn't take away from the fact that he is an egotistical blowhard who blusters and browbeats people and then throws a fit when someone disagrees with him and gives him a browbeating.

Then when you continue to present solid evidence that destroys his position (which he can't support with any evidence..he just states his opinion and calls anyone disagreeing an idiot) he silences the poster by blocking them from his blog. He can't stand been shown to be wrong on something. It show's a distinct lack of maturity and class. He's like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum. Too bad because the stuff he has done to expose the useless christy clark has been good.

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.